Yota LTE Shift Raises Questions About Mobile WiMAX

Russian operator Yota says it will cover its next 15 cities with Long Term Evolution instead of WiMAX, and that it would cover Moscow and St. Petersburg with LTE by the end of 2011.

Many industry watchers assumed that Yota would deploy TD-LTE. However, Yota may have acquired additional spectrum to deploy FD-LTE instead.

“If the speculation that Yota is considering FD-LTE deployment and that it will continue running its WiMAX networks in the meantime is true, this shows Yota’s intent to use LTE for fully mobile applications with international roaming," ABI Research practice director Philip Solis says.

Debated Shift from WiMAX to LTE: Yota is First to Move from Talk to Action, According to ABI Research | Business Wire